Buttiglione is a member of the Italy’s Chamber of Deputies. He is one of Europe’s leading Catholic political thinkers, serving as a professor of political science at Saint Pius V University in Rome and as a member of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences.

He is coming to Steubenville, Ohio as the first distinguished visiting scholar of Franciscan University’s Dietrich von Hildebrand Legacy Project.

On Oct. 21, Buttiglione will give a public lecture titled “My Friendship with a Saint: What Blessed John Paul II Taught Me About Christian Witness.” Franciscan University said the lecture will draw on Buttiglione’s “unique vantage point as friend, trusted adviser, and spiritual son.”

Buttiglione will give the philosophy department’s annual, public Edith Stein Lecture on Oct. 23, on the topic “Beyond Descartes: Intersubjectivity as Ground of Knowledge of the Self.”

Buttiglione has also served as Italian Minister for European Affairs and Italian Minister for Cultural Assets and Activities.

Buttiglione made headlines around the world in 2004 when Italy nominated him as a justice minister for the European Commission, the executive body of the European Union. His opponents blocked his nomination because of his Catholic beliefs on homosexuality, among other issues.